Guwahati, Sept 09: In a crackdown against wildlife smugglers, five suspected smugglers were arrested with rhino horns, elephant tusks and tiger bones by officials of Manas National Park (MNP) in Assam’s Baksa district on Friday.

As per sources, the wildlife smugglers were planning to sell the animal parts to other states through middleman.

Talking to media persons, Field Director of Manas National Park, Rajen Choudhury, said they detained five individuals along with the animal body parts and registered a case in this regard against them under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Choudhary said the accused were taken to the police, who confessed during the interrogation that they were involved in the killing of two rhinos at the Manas National Park this year. “They stayed inside the Park for six days and killed rhinos and other wildlife animals. They later sold the rhino horn,” an official said.

On August 17, Assam Police’s Special Task Force (STF) and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) arrested a mother-son duo of suspected traffickers of wildlife creatures from Assam and Meghalaya.

“Wildlife crimes has been increasing in Assam in the last few years and the smugglers are using every ploy to smuggle animal body parts,” a source said.

In April this year, three suspected poachers were arrested in Assam’s Barpeta with tiger skins and bones worth Rs.20 lakhs. They had allegedly killed a tiger in Manas Tiger Reserve and tried to sell it to smugglers in another state.

Meanwhile, the Assam’s Forest department has taken slew of measures to control the wildlife crimes inside National parks. A command battalion has also been inducted to control the crime. Recently, many poachers were arrested from different areas of the state with animal body parts.

Also read: Assam Govt to amend Panchayati Raj System, bring administrative reforms

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